Meta tags provide information about webpages to help search engines categorize them correctly. Meta tags are part of the HTML coding, but are not directly visible to a user visiting the site.

To see your meta tags, go to your website’s home page and in the VIEW menu of your browser select SOURCE. Look for the meta tags (near the top, in the “head” section) which will look like this:

NumberOneOnTheList.com views meta tags as an important part of search engine optimization. The meta data is viewed and recorded by search engine automated programs (crawlers) and there’s no downside to using meta tags. The SEO community agrees that your Title is vital.

3 important meta elements:

(1) Keywords – Pick the best keywords you can by looking at your business the way a potential customer about to search the internet might look. Use surveys, look at your competition’s website and find the keywords that your target market uses.

(2) Description – The meta description will appear in the Google search listing for your webpage. Use your keywords appropriately and make it as compelling as you can so the searcher visits your webpage. Use 160 characters or less.

(3) Title – Use your keywords, condense your description and make sure you put the best one’s first.

The limit for your Title is 70 characters on most search engines. There is no penalty for going over but the search engines with the 70 character limit will not read more than that. I usually go beyond the 70 characters.

Notice that both your Description and your Title back up your keywords by using them. This is further supported by using keywords in the text in the body of the page. Don’t try to use keywords constantly, use them when on-point and relevant.

Although meta tags should be reviewed from time to time (about as often as you’d do a complete website redesign) do not change your meta information frequently.